Sixteen-year-old Starr Carter is caught between two worlds. She lives in a predominantly* black and poor neighborhood but, along with her brothers, attends a ritzy*, mostly white prep school on the other side of town.

When we meet Carter, she’s at a party with her neighborhood friend Kenya, acutely* aware of her learned habit of code-switching and feeling unsure of her place in the local scene. A gang dispute leads to shots fired and she flees with Khalil, her childhood best friend whose path forked from hers when she went to prep school and he started selling drugs.

Carter and Khalil have nothing to do with the violence of the evening, but are stopped by a policeman on their way home. The cop shoots Khalil in front of Carter, and Khalil dies.

Khalil was unarmed. Soon afterward, his death is a national headline. Some are calling him a thug*, maybe even a drug dealer and a gangbanger*. Protesters are taking to the streets* in Khalil’s name. Some cops and the local drug lord try to intimidate* Carter and her family. What everyone wants to know is: What really went down that night? And the only person alive who can answer that is Carter. But what Carter does or does not say could upend* her community. It could also put her life in danger.

The debut novel from author Angie Thomas, it has been adapted into an upcoming drama film directed by George Tillman Jr.